Monday, March 2, 2015

Change of Plans

Happy Monday, y'all. I think it goes without saying that I am NOT done with my February "Blue" challenge. I'd love to say it's because I had a setback with my fashion fabric, but that's not really the reason. Or at least, it's not the whole reason.

I did make a super tasty Thai curry soup, prep lunches for this week, take the dog for a run in SUN on BARE PAVEMENT and not ice, got my hair cut, waxed my eyebrows, did my nails, napped with my exhausted-from-new-job husband, and spent time with my empty-nester parents.

So, you know, all good things. But very little sewing happened. Some did, though!

I ripped off my "wool" blend fashion fabric and started over with a length of blue wool from my stash, which burn tested as wool ought to and smelled just terrible--as it should. I also then re-hand-basted all the pieces together and started test stitching.

It turns out that this slight change caused my previous thread setup (Americana quilting cotton bobbin, plain cotton all-purpose top thread) to not look quite the same. So I machine basted through my marked pieces and will be stitching my boning channels from the front, with the thicker thread on top and the tension loosened ever so slightly. I got all ten pieces machine basted in one night. That was...highly unexpected.

Three down, seventy billion to go. This was after I tested various thread combinations, ripped several test lines out, and finally settled on the arrangement described above. Now all that's left is to sew lots of straight lines. And cut boning, install it, whip my seam allowances down, assemble, eyelet, and bind. Oh, and put together a lining and stitch that in.